1. Field of Invention
This invention relates in general to navigation through a plurality of features in a user interface. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for displaying each of the plurality of features and giving a user the option of triggering a particular feature.
2. Description of the Background Art
Hardware devices using context-sensitive buttons have various applications such as ATM machines, telephones, consumer electronics, etc. In particular, a user interface associated with devices such as ATM machines and IP phones allow a user to navigate through various features of the device. The features include a call-holding facility, a call-transfer facility, a call-ending facility, etc. This navigation is performed by means of buttons. However, the number of features provided by a button is limited. Also, no flexibility is provided to change a feature associated with a button. Buttons are associated with only one particular feature. This limitation is overcome by using context-sensitive buttons.
Each context-sensitive button is associated with more than one feature. A user may navigate though the plurality of features using a ‘more’ button.
In a conventional user interface, a set of features is displayed at a time. When the ‘more’ button is pressed, the user interface activates another set of features, which can be accessed by pressing down the same set of context-sensitive buttons. In some products, the user is allowed to customize the order of the features.
However, the conventional user interface does not allow the user to view all the features offered by the user interface at the same time. Hence, the user does not know whether the user interface has a particular feature, without going through all the features.